


Another Alternative

by OM3N17783



Category: Enter the Gungeon (Video Game)
Genre: AU, NO PROMISES THO, Not Serious, fucken uhhhhh, prepare for a wild ride if i continue past the first chapter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:40:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23838505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OM3N17783/pseuds/OM3N17783
Summary: After The Convict kills her past, she assumes she's now free to go back to her normal life without it haunting her anymore. Sitting by the beach, taking a deep breath, and- Wait. She's back at the breach again. God fucking dammit.
Kudos: 9





	1. Chapter 1

The Convict tilted her glasses down, looking at the all-too-familiar pillars, the all-too-familiar staircase, and the not-too-familiar kid staring at her from a table set in the center of a scattered circle of belongings. The kid wore a purple cloak with a yellow cape that was way too big for him and a backpack with 2-3 different guns sticking out.

"Oh, you're alive!" The kid exclaimed, "Everyone thought you vanished with Hunter, are you okay?"

The Convict didn't respond, she just sat up from her beach chair and looked around suspiciously. Everything checked out, this was the breach, but _why_ was she back here? She killed her past, didn't she?

"Am I..."

"Dreaming?" The kid continued, "I wish I could say you were, but last time I did that you threw yourself in front of a barrel of dynamite sooo... Welcome back! And enjoy your stay, someone's trying to keep us here..."

"I did what now-"

"Look, I uh.. Don't have too much time right now? Pilot's waiting on me in the elevator, but it'll kick in soon.."

"Wait, what will kick i-"

"Bye!" The kid grabbed a tennis ball and ran off, a small dog wiggled out of The Marine's tent and followed him.

Convict stood up and looked around. There was different gear and boxes of ammo scattered everywhere, a jar of health points labeled "Emergencies Only", a pile of keys and lock picks sitting near Pilot's belongings, but amidst all of the random junk Hunter's items were nowhere to be found. Only an empty crossbow on the table with a friendship cookie leaning on it. She stared at this for a while, trying to figure out what exactly it meant, but soon said "fuck it" and started grabbing random gear. She headed for the elevator.

* * *

Pilot and Cultist walked through the eerily empty room. Chamber 1 wasn't the same after a few runs, it was like everyone went into hiding instead of fighting. Oh well, just makes it easier to find more loot! Cultist took this time to double-check his guns as Pilot was searching behind paintings and crashing chandeliers down.

"Hey.." Cultist checked the ammo of a pistol he found on the floor as he spoke, "I wanted to ask you something."

"Throw it at me, kid." Pilot did a waving motion with his hands, inspecting a painting of Gatling Gull.

"I know it's been quite a few resets since it happened, but... I dunno, I'm still thinking about it."

"Thinking about what?"

"When I used the gun and... Y'know. No hard feelings about that, right?"

Pilot went silent and looked at the kid for a while before walking up to him. He kneeled down like a dad trying to convince his kid to fuck off to the game and put a hand on his shoulder,

"Kid," Pilot sighed, "We all done fucked up here. As far as I'm concerned, you're all set, I'm all set, Convict's all set... Our only goal now is to figure out why we're still here and who's responsible. Are you still with me on this?"

"Well, yeah, but-"

"Then we're good, aren't we?"

"..I guess, I just still feel bad for getting rid of your opportunity to-"

 _CRASH!_  
Just from the other side of the wall, it sounded like a bunch of pots fell over at once. The both of them stopped what they were doing and looked towards the noise... Footsteps? Someone was here, but who? The door next to them gets blocked off as a dark figure zooms past them, then after another crash the doors were free to open.

"FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK--" Convict ran through the door in a panic, holding an armful of gear.

"Woah, hold on.." Pilot took a step back, "What the hell was all that?"

"I dunno, man! I assumed this place was empty..!!" She took a moment to catch her breath before continuing, "Speaking of which, where did all the enemies go!?"

Pilot and Cultist looked at each other, "Well, uhh.. It's a long story, that's for sure."

"Whatever, just.. For the love of fuck give me the gist at least."

"If you say so." Pilot turned around, motioning Convict to follow him. He'd go to another room where the shopkeeper would usually be, more junk was scattered everywhere. He'd pick up a coconut shell with a mini umbrella from a stack that was kept on the counter and tossed it over to convict, hopping on the counter. The Cultist would also sit down on the floor with the dog sitting on his lap.

"I'm sure you're familiar with all this. That coconut belongs to you, and we've talked about this a few times in the past. _It_ just hasn't kicked in yet."

"What in sam hell is 'it'?" Convict tilted her head, "I heard the kid tell me the same thing! Actually, better question, why is the kid here!?"

"I'll get into that in a second. What's important is that in a good minute you're gonna have a whole wave of memories and it's _not_ gonna be pretty, so I'm gonna run this down as fast as I can: Currently, Chamber 4 is off limits due to someone, or someTHING, that keeps resetting ti-"

The convict held her hand up, dropping her coconut cocktail. She felt an awful headache and lightheadedness out of nowhere and tried to keep her balance by leaning on the counter. After taking a breath, she looked up at Pilot with an even more confused look on her face.

"Resetting.. What now..?" She asked, before passing out on the floor.


	2. Quite The Irony

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alternative title: Convict & The *Zany* Sleep Paralysis Session

The Convict woke up, or at least she thought she did. Everything around her felt real, the floors were cold and wet, there was a strange scent in the air of campfire and something else she wasn't able to identify right away, and she could feel a deep cut wound on her arm that wasn't there before. At the same time, she felt barely conscious. Like how you feel in a dream, everything just drifting by one event after the other. When she opened her eyes, there was a dark figure staring at her from the ceiling. They hand one glowing eye on the left side of their face, as the other was covered by long and messy hair. They giggled in a familiar voice, but Convict couldn't tell who it was supposed to be, nor could she move.

 **"Oh, the irony of this situation.."** The creature said in a soothing but paralyzing voice, **"Everyone here thought you'd be the one to save them, the last resort, the final hope... But here you are, against the wall and hopeless. It's funny in a fucked up way, y'know? You all could've just.. Click click, pow! But instead, you tried to show _mercy?_ What kind of fucked up fairytale did this adventure turn into?" **They laughed before clearing their throat and continuing in a serious tone, **"This just proves my point from square one, you're strong until you have company. You lower your defenses when you have others to defend you, but why is that? Why waste your potential to lead your team on instead of keeping the same level of power you'd have by yourself? Are you _afraid_ of something, dumbass?"**

The Convict looked at the creature with a death glare, the only thing she could mumble out in this fucked up sleep paralysis session was "Who are you, even?"

 **"Who am I?"** The creature paused before cackling, **"Who _am_ I? If you were aware of everything by now, you would've figured that out a long time ago. I guess you could say I was considered a friend to you, though. But now things are different. I don't need those friends anymore, I need bloodshed. I need _prey._ I do hope you don't mind, Lily dear." **

Before she could say anything else, the creature lunged at her.

* * *

Everything went black for a while, and she _actually_ woke up back at the breach this time. The Cultist sat next to her, petting what was practically his dog now at this point and talking to it in a barely intelligible baby voice. She sat up, rubbing her head and trying to look at the tag the dog had on it's collar...

_Junior II_

Wait a minute, isn't that Hunter's dog? Come to think of it, the kid also had the yellow cape... What the hell happened to her?

She spoke up after double checking that's what the tag said, and yep. That's Junior. "Yo, kid... Where's uhh.." She took a moment to think, "Where's Hunter?"

"Oh!" The Cultist turned to look at Convict, "You're already up again, huh? You're really good at that! Compared to most of us, at least. Pilot's still passed out. As for Hunter, she... Kinda left a while ago. Told us she was gonna go out on her own after you killed your past. If anything went wrong, she was afraid she wouldn't come back so.. She asked us to take care of Junior!"

"Really?" Convict tilted her head, that didn't make any sense. Junior was practically her companion throughout this whole adventure, why would she suddenly leave him behind?

"Yeah.. After a while the little guy brought me her cape, too. We can only assume the worst. Marine's been affected the most since they were the closest, kind of in a brother and sister way but Hunter was pretty much the older sister by 1,000 years... I've been taking care of Junior most of the time, since I'm only dragged into the chambers when they need an extra pair of hands. That part never changed for me." The Cultist sighed, "You learn to make a molotov and use an RPG and they still like to baby you.. You snap and kill a guy in a previous run and they _STILL_ like to baby you... But yeah, she's gone."

"Oh..." Convict looked shocked, "Jeez, that's kinda.."

"Yeah... We try not to bring it up too much. Anyways, how was your rest?" Cultist smiled.

"It wasn't much," She stood up, stretching. "I had a weird dream, I guess. Besides that, I am still confused as hell!"

"So, the usual?"

"The usual, if I've been here for that long."

"Mhm." Cultist stood up, "It's been a while now."

"Damn."

"What was the dream about, though?"

"I'm not so sure.." Convict sat back down, "It felt so real, I thought I already fucked us all over."

"Pff- What do you mean?"

"You know what, forget about it. It was just a random dream anyways." Convict picked up a random gun off the ground, "I think I'm gonna search for some more stuff... Not that we need it, I'm just trying to figure out how you guys obtained all of this."

"Haha! I have no idea. Good luck, though.. There's evidently a new threat on our hands."

Convict gave the kid a finger gun before taking an armful of random stuff and heading for the elevator once more. When she left, Cultist reached into his cape for a bag of treats and tossed one to Junior. He decided to sit back down on the beach chair this time and pet the dog, staying relatively quiet now.

He didn't get as bored as he used to anymore, staying at the breach while everyone was out was more of a relief at this point. With this new shadowy creature that could trap them in a room at any point, he'd rather stay and take care of Junior. The dog was always friendly with him anyways, the same couldn't be said for most of the people in The Gungeon. He came here just to hide from getting in trouble for spilling grape juice but now he's mastered weapons that would otherwise break his wrist if he didn't learn to handle them properly and is low-key losing his mind with everything that's happening right now. If anything, he just wants to go home already... He wasted that opportunity, though. And now he's here! Wearing the cape of a dead girl, taking care of her dog, and trying not to snap for the second time in a row. Fun, right?

"Well.." Cultist sighed, "Just you and me again, buddy. You, me, and a grieving Marine." He looked at Marine's tent before completely laying down on the beach chair. Junior hopped up and curled up next to him as he stared at the ceiling. He was just about to close his eyes until he noticed a strange creature crawling across it. They stared at him with 2 glowing eyes and zoomed away.

"Wait a minute-"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're still goin', boys!!!!


	3. Chapter 3

Cultist can't say he didn't expect this, but he can't say he saw it coming so soon either. The figure landed in front of the beach chair and hovered over him like some sort of sleep paralysis demon. They tapped their claws together, making small metallic clicks as they opened their mouth into a twisted grin and licked their fangs. Like their eyes, it was like there was nothing but a bright white light inside. The creature could only be described a dark jack-o-lantern husk with long hair and hands of steel. They raise one of their hands up, the claws glistening in the blue light and ready to swing.

 **"Are you prepared for the kind of death you've earned, little man?"** They said. Cultist picked up Junior and rolled out of the way, barely dodging their swing that cut clean through the beach chair. After he put Junior back down, he grabbed the crossbow off the table and searched the floor for random bolts. While this was all happening, Pilot walked out of the tent, yawning.

"Yo, what's all the noise about... Is it even- HOLY-!" Pilot got the attention of the creature and immediately got tackled instead. His yelling was cut off by a loud hiss and a cold metallic hand covering his mouth.

 **"I've been waiting.. SO long.. For something that doesn't taste like FUCKING gunpowder.."** They said under heavy and giggly breath, **"Now that I'm finally free, I don't even care who it is anymore!"**

For the creature's height, they were quite strong and held Pilot down with an almost bone-crushing force against the stone floor. They opened their jaws even more, about to bite into Pilot's neck, until they froze with the sound of a crossbow shooting and a bolt going clean through their chest. They went silent for a moment before letting out an ungodly screech, fading away into dark ash. When they were completely gone, Pilot could see Cultist from the other side. He was shaking pretty bad.

"Kid.." Pilot huffed, he didn't know what to make of what just happened at all. Cultist lowered the crossbow, still not saying a word.

"Kid, are you okay? What was that?" Pilot continued. He sat up and looked at him, concerned. "Did they hurt you at all? You need to tell me if you-"

"I'm fine.." Cultist tossed the crossbow to the side and wiped ash off his face with his sleeve. "Just a little shocking, that's all... Came in out of nowhere, just as I was about to go back to sleep."

"Where's Convict?"

"Went out for loot.. Whatever she can find." He looked at pilot, confused.

"Kid." Pilot said in a more serious tone than before, "I'm asking this again, are you okay? Seriously. I need to know whether or not you're wounded."

Cultist was silent, his expression went from confusion to annoyance.

"Kid.."

"Why the hell do you care!?" Cultist suddenly snapped, taking a step back from Pilot. "Before all of this, I was your punching bag! What clicked to make you suddenly give a damn about me, huh? Just needed a moment to accept you're stuck with me? Don't act like you didn't throw me into danger whenever it was convenient for you! What makes now any different!?"

Pilot was thrown off by this sudden burst of anger, "What? What do you mean, kid?"

"After everything you guys put me through, I've had it! I just wanted to be able to help, but even the shopkeepers here treated me like shit! And now that our choices are slim, you're suddenly trying to be _nice_ to me? Gods.. Gungodda.." He clenched his fists, tearing up, "I wish I never came here! You guys are the fucking worst! The only person here that hasn't thrown me all over the place like a human shield is a dog. Do you think I'm too weak or something? Cause I can show you what's weak!"

He grabbed a tennis ball off the table and stormed off, taking Junior and a random gun with him. Pilot sat there in shock, not sure what to make of that. He stood up as he heard the elevator doors close and head downward. Has he really been treating him that badly? He sighed, picking up his laser gun off the floor. 

"I gotta go after him.." He ran up the staircase and went through the entrance to Chamber 1. Just behind one of the guards, a strange dark figure started to rise from the ground..

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little idea I originally had on twitter, y'know how it is.


End file.
